ROSE STANDS ALONE, pt.1 (proto-EMPOWERED comic from early 2000s)

Patrons of the $1 and $3 tiers, enjoy a rare glimpse at material normally only seen by the Bigger Spenders of the $5, $10 & $20 tiers! 

See, you've been missing out on many, many commissioned comic pages and con-sketch-format illos from the rather desperate days of yore when, chronically underemployed as I was then (and often still am nowadays), I cranked out commissioned "damsel-in-distress" content of the sort that would eventually morph into Empowered.

Unsurprisingly, a bunch of that older material produced for generous (uncapitalized) patrons back in the day featured Kei and Y**i from the Dirty Pair winding up in unlikely damselly scenarios. (Note, by the way, that I can't even spell out Y**i's full name without triggering an automatic Patreon warning.)

However, in dozens of older Distressed Damsels posts for the $5 tier and higher, I've taken to referring to this notably unofficial, alarmingly bondage-prone version of the Lovely Angels as "Rose and Lily," given that my in-continuity version of Kei & Y**i would be nowhere near as easily distressed as these commissions depicted. (Perhaps "Rose & Lily" are cursed with bondage in a simulation, just like Empowered is within her own universe? Who knows....)

Anyhoo, at some point in the early 2000s when I was long on free time and short on paying comics work, a generous friend of mine wanted some "DiD" content featuring Kei-- no, Rose. Originally I was going to crank out some pin-ups, but instead I decided to do some sketchy layout pages in what proved to be an early version of the later Empowered comic format. 

Ah, but to set up the distressing scenario, I planned to feature an initial page featuring plucky Rose fighting off some anonymous, would-be captors; lo and behold, though, I had so much fun drawing said fight scene that the action-packed opening sequence dragged on for five full pages of Rose being a damsel who was proving extremely difficult to distress. Golly! 

Part of the amusement value of this opening scene was that, since this would be an unpublished and highly unofficial version of the DP, I could pump up the cheesecake level of the imagery to a degree not normally seen with my in-continuity DP work. Wheeeeee! (This, too, would later prove to be an early version of the Empowered format.) Gotta admit, 'twas amusing to draw "Rose" in the high heels that the in-continuity Angels had not worn for decades.

Note that I reused the poses in the middle panel above for the introduction of Empowered's Goddamn Maidman:

Anyhoo, next week or thereabouts, Patrons of the $5 tier and higher will see the continuation of this narrative, in which our valiant heroine Rose winds up in a more conventional  "damsel in distress" scenario. Oh, no!

In the meantime, hope you fine folks of the $1 and $3 tiers enjoyed this brief glimpse of material you've been missing out on. (Though I should point out that, if you're at the $1 "mostly Life Drawing" tier, you've missed out on a far larger number and variety of posts of every type, possibly numbering into the hundreds.)

NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: While switching to the so-called "M/W/F+" schedule has eased my workload of Patreon prep a bit, this has also triggered a conceptual logjam of sorts as I try to find slots for ongoing types of posts.  So, expect to see some random juggling of posts through the rest of the month, okay?